What Happens at College
by raised-from-perdition98
Summary: Who really wants to spend their college career with all their siblings, when it's bad enough stuck with just one? Especially when said siblings are all jerks that may or may not be out to destroy any freedom said person once had. (College AU)
1. Prologue

"Mike, can I—"

"No."

Lucifer snorted loudly, turning to look out the window. Although it wasn't him Michael had been talking to, the awkward ride was making them all bitter and tense.

"Seriously, Michael. Please. It's hotter than hell in here and the A.C.'s broken." Gabriel whined, but didn't keep up the childish atmosphere long, instead deciding to take another bite of his Snickers bar. What was that, his third in the hour?

The oldest brother glared at the middle child via the rearview mirror. "Shut up Gabe, it's not that bad."

"DUDE!" Gabriel bellowed, "You have no room to complain! You're up there with Lucy—"

"Do NOT call me LUCY!"

"—And you've got space for at least another person between! Back here, it's me, Raph, and Anna all scrunched together! Even Cassie's better off, sitting alone in the back!"

Castiel winced in the very backseat of his brother's black Tahoe. Why did Gabriel have to drag him into these pointless arguments? They always led to—

"For Pete's sake Gabriel! Can you stop with the 'you're a horrible brother' speeches?!"

And then to—

"Not my fault you aren't the sibling I would beg for. You're such an a—"

"Guys, please stop fighting. Dad never wanted that."

That. At least Anna was nice about it.

"Anna," Raphael snorted sourly, "you know dad's long gone and not coming back."

Two furious gazes focused in on the older of middle kids, Anna from his right and Castiel from behind him. The sudden silent intensity that filled the car was almost tangible.

"No he's not." Cas rebuked, his voice oddly gravelly for being the youngest sibling. The oldest four didn't say anything to convince the youngest two otherwise, and an odd sickness crept into his stomach, much like a flitter of fear that refused to leave, instead residing inside him, infecting him.

There was a long moment of silent, in which Castiel tried meeting the gaze of one of his siblings through a mirror. Michael was staring straight ahead, while Lucifer, Gabriel, and Raphael stared out of their respective windows with pained, moody expression.

"Michael, can we stop somewhere? I'm kinda hungry." Her eyes met her brother's in the mirror, and all the other siblings could practically see him melting. No matter how old anybody in that vehicle lived to be, they would always see each other the same way. Michael had always been the leader that everybody looked up to, Lucifer was always the jerkish brother everybody fought with, but still looked up to. Raphael would always be the slightly moody but quiet one that still managed to make everybody else mad. Gabriel could never be anything but a prankster, picking locks and ruining dates. Nobody would stop adoring Anna, the only girl in the family. And Castiel? He was sure that he would always be the one that got teased, the one who was just learning to make his own decisions but still afraid to.

"Yeah, 'bout time we stopped for lunch. Haven't had anything to eat since six, anyway." He said with a soft smile.


	2. Chapter 1

Castiel would have rather faced the apocalypse than decide to sit down with his family for lunch.

"Pleeeaassseee Michael!" Gabriel groaned, basically shoving the dessert menu into his brother's face. He had the worst sweet tooth in the family, and wouldn't ever stop asking for dessert.

"Gabriel, please, stop. You're almost twenty-four. I mean, pie sounds great, but please calm down." Lucifer begged in his super-sweet voice. When he pulled out that particular tone, even the fire stopped roaring. Anybody would listen to him, as long as he talked like that. His eyes were big and sympathetic, while also managing to be completely condescending. He could convince anybody that a mouse was a cat.

Gabriel slouched, dropping the menu next to his abandoned salad. "Yeah, and still not allowed to pick what I'm eating for dinner." His caramel-colored eyes widened and then narrowed as his voice rose up and down in the statement, translating roughly to the areas mostly filled with sarcasm, and the areas least filled with sarcasm. For a second, nobody talked. Instead, they just stared at the person across from them, Michael and Gabriel, Lucifer and Castiel, and Anna and Raphael. Finally, everybody started laughing, even Raphael, the only one who was expected to be silent.

Castiel was really starting to believe that he had the weirdest family in the solar system. They had the craziest fights, often ran away from each other, and went through stupid phases, but they still laughed at the same things.

"Alright, alright. Gabe, eat something other than the croutons. Maybe the tomatoes? You need to eat something too, Castiel. Anything will do, I just don't want you to starve before you even get to your new college. Then we can get some pie, I promise."

Cas gave him his best puppy eyes, but sighed when he saw Michael shake his head. For some reason, not a single sibling was upset with the fact that Michael was bossing them around now. After the rather painful discussion on their father, it seemed like the only thing they could do to keep the family together was let him run the show.

"I like this place." He mused as a distraction, making Lucifer look up from the critical examination of his bowl of soup.

"What, the Roadhouse? Good, your friends will be dragging you here often, if you actually make a few. Which I'm sure you will. Make friends, I mean." He only added the last bit due to a glare from Michael, but it didn't matter because Cas was slightly distracted by the surrounding area.

It was a nice combination of modern and old-fashioned, with an almost western feel about it. It seemed like a place one of those wandering rangers would stop in for a night. The polished wood was scratched in several places, lending a worn look to the place. It kind of looked comfortable, in the way that an old book does. Initials were scarred into the tables, along with hearts and other random things that had no meaning in Castiel's mind.

Later on, he reminded himself of the general rule that one should always be wary of the older brother.

Deciding that he had best take full advantage of his youngest sibling's distraction, Gabriel picked up the fork from where Cas had placed in and almost shoved it down his throat. Cas gagged in response, pulling the fork out of his mouth but unable to spit out the spaghetti without looking like he was two.

"Gabriel!" He barked out after managing to swallow the mouthful, somehow serious despite knowing that the rest of his family was giggling. Michael was the first to fully recover, and half-heartedly slapped the back of Gabriel's head (only making him laugh harder), quickly followed by Raphael, who had the decency to pass his blue-eyed brother a napkin.

"Mi—Mike—Mikey said you—you needed to eat! I just wanted pie!" His attempt at sorrow was an absolute failure, earning another dark scowl that none of them took seriously.

"Well isn't that selective hearing at its height? I also told you to eat your tomatoes." Michael countered.

Although he wasn't usually one for petty vengeance, Cas was tired of being picked on. He thought he'd made that clear back at the airport two years ago, when he rounded on Lucifer and stared him down for a good minute while pointing out every exact thing that Lucifer had done to him. Instead of just letting it go like he usually would, he leaned over and grabbed one of Gabriel's tomatoes, launching it squarely into his mouth. The pinched expression of disgust was rather nice to see.

"Brother," the caramel-eyed jerk managed to say before pausing to down his entire Coke, "you will regret that sooner rather than later. We are in college now. I will end you."

A light ding cut into the argument, and got everybody to look curiously to the door. The only other customer besides the odd group up to this point was a drunk-looking fellow who hadn't moved from the corner of the room, typing furiously on his laptop without any breaks.

Despite Castiel never really looking away unless he had to—no, that wasn't staring—he never saw the stranger so much as blink or look down at his keyboard.

The two boys that walked into the place next fully took over his attention, though. They were around the same height, but Castiel could tell from the bravado in the lighter-haired one's step that he was older (and obviously a bit more arrogant) than his darker-haired companion. He could also tell that they were brothers, from the way that they sat automatically next to each other.

He really needed to find some friends. This staring thing really couldn't go on any longer.

For some reason, though (whatever that reason was), he just couldn't look away from them. The older one had short hair, and wore faded jeans, a green shirt, and a leather jacket. A necklace hung from around his neck, a simple pendant on a black chain. His shoes (work boots, rather) were sturdy, worn, and obviously reliable. The other boy had much longer, much darker hair and warm eyes. He was dressed somewhat similarly to the other, but he had a plain, thick, sturdy jacket similar to the ones he saw outdoor workers wear. His shoes were also meant for hard work.

"Hey Ellen!" The first guy said as the owner walked up to their little spot, accompanied by a soft 'hello' from his brother.

"Good to see you two! I hear classes start up again Monday. You two enjoying your last days of freedom?"

"Well, we figured that while we were celebrating we might as well see how things are going around here. And maybe eat as much pie as we can afford." The younger said with one of those puppy-dog smiles that almost matched Anna's. Castiel had always been told that his family all had really excellent sad faces, the ones that made any heart melt.

A soft guttural sound much like disgust drew Cas's eyes back to Michael, as he was surprised to hear such an expression of undisguised dislike from the sibling that was usually the most tolerant of the six. And to see the expression copied almost perfectly on Lucifer's face? That was a troubling rarity.

Something drew those two back to the family, though Castiel really hoped that it wasn't the sound Michael had made. How horrible would that have been? The two obviously lived in this town, and none of the newer four really wanted to get on bad terms with the neighbors.

"Hey! Michael, Lucifer!" The older one waved, though his bright expression hardly managed to detract from the slight horror and a bit of fear that sat on the face of his younger brother. What had happened between these four?

Gabriel, Raphael, Anna, and Castiel all watched as he walked over, leaving the suddenly silent brother behind. Their eyes flicked simultaneously to their brothers, then back to this newcomer.

"Dean Winchester." Michael greeted formally, inclining his head slightly. At least he attempted to hide his disgust, unlike Lucifer, who looked like he was about ready to snap his neck.

Castiel couldn't help but admire the fact that this guy didn't flinch, and his smirk didn't waver. Who else could manage to blatantly ignore the rather frightening look on Lucifer's face? Nobody came to mind except for Michael, but that was probably because he was just as good at the look of pure loathing.

"Hey, is this your family then?" Dean asked curiously, looking at everybody and managing to earn a bit of dislike from every brother as they watched him stare at Anna.

"Yes." Michael responded a bit too curtly, pushing back his chair and fixing his jacket. "They're all here this year. Anyway, we'd better get going. You know, get them settled in with their new roommates and all that. Catch you later."


End file.
